Wildcats, Red Knights ready for a battle
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TORONTO -- The annual meeting between Edison and Toronto is one both schools wait for each and every season.
This year's edition of the rivalry clash Friday night at Clarke Hinkle Field features teams off to good starts and in the thick of the race for playoff spots, adding to the intrigue.
"I'm expecting nothing but their best," Edison coach Mike Collopy, who's Wildcats are 5-0, said of the Red Knights. "They have a lot of good players, they have guys that are getting big time college looks. They have quarterback, running back and wide receivers that are very fast and speed is tough to defend.
"Defensively they bring pressure, they're agressive and they get to the football.
"We've had some really good games with them through the years and we're expecting that same type of game."
The Red Knights, however, are coming off the their first loss at the hands of Oak Glen and looking to bounce back.
"I think a lot of people are not giving Oak Glen enough credit, they're good football that played a lot of tough opponents early on," Toronto head coach Josh Franke said. "I think we might have got caught looking ahead a little bit and when you don't take every game as serious as you need to, you can find yourself in a trap.
"We have to move past Oak Glen, learn from it and move forward."
The big lesson is not to look ahead, no matter how big the rivalry ahead may be.
"It's one of those things where we're a young team and you have to learn how to win properly, and I don't think we're there yet," Franke said. "We went into last week 4-0 and I think a large part of success is how you handle having success. I think it was a very valuable lesson that you can't look ahead.
"I'd be lying if I said our kids hadn't been talking about Edison the past couple of weeks. It's been on their minds, it's game on the schedule we look forward to every year."
To get to 6-0, Collopy knows his team will have to stop a speedy cast of weapons on the Toronto side -- and that will be easier said than done.
"Defensively we have to be gap sound and we have to be in good pursuit lanes," Collopy said. "We have to be able to tackle in open space."
Count Collopy and Co. as still working to get better, too.
"I don't think we're anywhere close to a finished product," Collopy said. "I like where we're at up front, we're working hard and finishing our blocks on the offensive line. Our receivers have done a good job of blocking and they're being unselfish.
"Our running backs and quarterback have done a really good job in the run game. We've got to continue to improve on the little things, make sure we're running the right routes, hitting the right lanes.
"Defensively, we've had really good effort and I think we're getting to the ball well. We've had some alignment issues we need to improve upon. Everyone has to know what theur assignment is play their role to the best of their ability."
He also knows the importance of not looking ahead and keeping an even keel mindset.
"We're in a week-to-week mindset," Collopy said. "Once the game is over, for better or worse, we move on, correct mistakes, try to take what we did well and make it better and move on. Everyone starts over on Monday."
Back on the Toronto side, they know it's going to be a challenge as well.
"They have roughly 60 kids on their roster and that makes a lot of things a little easier, practicing, rotating guys in and out, have depth when somone gets injured," Franke said of Edison. "It makes competiton in pracrice fierce. They're the typical Edison team, they're tough and physical kids."
Front and center in that challenge is slowing four-year Edison QB Gage Cline, who;s haveing a great season.
"Gage Cline is an athlete and their offense is centered around him," Franke said of the Edison signal caller. "Any offensive mind is going to build around a player like Gage Cline, he's been starting since he was a freshmen.
"We've seen him now four years and he's progrsses every year. He is a threat to run the ball and a threat to throw it.
"We played pretty well against him last year, it's challenge we have to be ready for."
The Red Knights own signal caller, Zeb Kinsey, was among their players to get injured in Week 5 looking to come back this week.
"We're working to get everyone healthy," Franke said. "We have an excellent trainer and excellent rehab tools and technology. Our guys that got dinged up are taking getting healthy seriously to be ready for this game because there's not a kid on this roster that doesn't want to be on the field in this game on Friday night."